Design Wall Monday-March 25, 2012

Here is a sketch of the quilting I'm using on this quilt. I got the idea from Suzanne Early's book and it is very loosely based on a pattern she drew.

I had to trim the borders a bit because I didn't buy quite enough fleece to back it, but otherwise it's the same. I tried to get some pictures of the quilting I've completed, but I never take pictures in the sunlight, so they stink. If you click on the picture below, you might be able to see something.

The colors in this picture are actually closer to reality than those above. I'm quilting in columns, and have finished four. I think I'll do the borders the same way and call it good. This is my April UFO for Judy's challenge and I almost didn't make it because I got stuck on the feathers I was quilting on the charity quilt and wasn't doing anything because I wasn't happy with the way it was looping. I finally decided I wanted to get something DONE, so pinned this one and now I'm quilting it.

While I was avoiding the feathers, I also made a cord bowl.











For this one I used un-dyed cord, and plan to dye it later. The bowl is an oval about 10 x 8 and about 5 inches tall.

 I plaited the cording on the top with 4 strands (I had to look up directions for that) then sewed it on by hand. I don't know what colors I'm going to use yet, or what it is going to be for, but I enjoyed making it.

To see what other folks have on their design walls, check out Judy's blog.

I'm Now a Cleaning Geek!

Who but a geek (and one who hates vacuuming at that)would buy a robot. I just did, and though it was expensive, I think I'm going to love it. I just don't clean the floors as often as they need. We've got lots of dust and bits of tiny rocks (our dirt is decomposed granite). This little guy picked it all up. I must admit, I put the kitchen chairs up and moved some other furniture away from the wall. I also had to clean up just a bit along the baseboards (especially in the bathroom), but all in all, a pretty stellar job...and all I had to do is watch. My favorite kind of vacuuming!

Here is all the dirt from the entry, kitchen, living room, bathroom and Joe's office. All the floors are hard surface, so there is no carpet lint in there. Oh, wait, three small area rugs in the kitchen stayed on the floor. It did pretty well there because they have a rubberized backing I think. The small area rug under Joe's desk got pushed around and not very well vacuumed (just fabric backed). Next time I take it outside and shake it before vacuuming and put it up somewhere.

My Saturday fun!

Design Wall Monday-March 12, 2012

 I got a bit more of the feathering done. It's a good thing this is a practice quilt, because the thread is pulling to the back every once in a while and making loops. I'm not sewing fast, so it's something else. I guess I may have to take my machine in at some point to get it serviced. Of course, if I do it will be the first time every in 23 years.

The front looks pretty good, especially because the fabric is so busy you don't see the mistakes. Because of the looping I'm kind of frustrated, so it's taking me a long time. I keep walking away. If I could figure out what is wrong and just not do that, I wouldn't be as frustrated, but that's what practice is for.

I also did just a little dyeing this weekend: onsies, socks and a bath blanket. They were colors I had lying around (premixed) so thought I'd use them. Not typical baby colors but I like them.

To see what other people have on their design walls, check out Judy's blog.

Dyeing a Baby Shower Gift

I did a little bit of dyeing this weekend. I have a friend whose shower was Friday, but better late than never, right?  I've had the onesies and blanket for a while and I mixed up the dye at the beginning of February. The colors are a bit odd for a baby, but they were the ones I had, and I think bright colors of any kind are wonderful for little ones. The dye batched for about 24 hours and the teal is really called kelly green. It was a dye I bought from Dharma, and must have had turquoise in it, because it washed out for quite a while.

I don't have a dryer, so on the line they go. It was snowing this morning, but now it's bright and breezy, so I hope they'll dry in time for me to take them to Amanda tomorrow.

Design Wall Monday-March 5, 2012

 This is the top I'm working on right now. It's not actually on the wall, but on the sewing table, because I'm giving a shot at quilting some feathers on it.

Here is the design from the front. Not too bad. I decided to use the funky feathers from Suzanne Earley's Meandering Magic. It's no longer in print but she's working on making it available via PDF.

The back is a bit more telling. I'm using fleece and you can see the thread is kind of bunching  up. I'm pretty pleased with how it is turning out. I'll keep at it, and since this is a charity quilt and the quilt police won't be inspecting it, I'm happy to keep going.

By the way, last week I showed my Modern Bargello quilt. I haven't decided how to quilt it yet, so it's resting. But a few commenters asked about the pattern. Since I made it based on an inspiration I wrote up the pattern, if you're interested. You can click on this link and save the PDF to your computer.

Enjoy

To see other design walls, check out Judy's blog.

Pattern to Share

A couple of commenters asked about the pattern I used for this quilt. There was an inspiration quilt, but I made up my own pattern. I didn't have anything formal, just scribbles on a paper and some dimensions (which weren't exactly right :^).

I decided to make them more formal and share them here if you're interested. If you click this link, you'll have access to the pattern and can save it to your computer. I didn't give any fabric yardage requirements (just thought of that) but I bought 2  yards of the background fabric and had just a bit left over. I already had the colored fabric, but a fat quarter would be more than enough of each color if you are making it similar to my own, if you are going to use just one color for each block, a fat quarter would do. If you do decide to make one of these, I would love to see it.

Enjoy

Quick Strip Quilt

I finished this top today. It would have been done much faster but I had a nasty cold and just couldn't stay focused long enough to work on it. It is from a strip set I cut from the guild's stash for charity quilts. I have 3 more strip sets I hope to pass out to ladies at the next guild meeting so they might make a quilt too.

It was taller than it was wide, so I took the extra blocks I had and cut them into three strips each and added them to the sides. I think I'll back it with fleece and call it good.

Simple. Quick (relatively). Done.